WoA can help you launch a “Workplace Promise” campaign that brings resilience, health and wellness awareness, and “right-doing” to your organization and its community. Contact us for assistance in launching your Workplace Promise campaign!

The Workplace Promise

I agree to support and endorse these principles to promote resilience within my workplace and community as described by the World Health Organization to the best of my abilities and position. Furthermore, I recognize that I must encourage individual mental fitness as an essential means to support other employees and keep our beneficiaries or customers satisfied; be responsive to change, crisis or disaster; and be a productive contributor to economic and social development for the betterment of our people.

I pledge to undertake activities or advocate for the following goals and objectives:

1. Uphold a resilience values-based approach and universal access to a positive mental health environment that incorporates the principles of social justice, human rights, civility and protects against discrimination, stigma, or other biases based on age, race, ethnicity, wealth, gender, religion, sexual orientation, family, whistleblowing, or disability while encouraging all people to have the confidence to seek help, make disclosures of wrongdoing, and have faith in a system that is worthy of their trust.

2. Advance prevention, resilience, and mental fitness through multiple venues that provide employees and the people they serve with an adequate education. This includes information about posttraumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression, suicide, the autism spectrum, and addiction/substance abuse. This information will be simple and straightforward for all to understand regardless of ability or impairment.

3. Expand opportunities for peer support, coaching, and mentorship that are professional, non-judgmental, sensitive, and empathetic to the needs, circumstances, and conditions of others who have similar experiences and career goals. Peers and coaches can facilitate access to other benefits and services, reduce isolation, validate concerns, assist with disclosures, and model self-advocacy. Mentors can shape professional pathways, identify professional improvement and advancement, and share information and resources for skill-building and problem-solving.

4. Engage workspaces to create transparent forums, events, exhibitions, activities, and other innovative opportunities for people to demonstrate their inclusivity, adaptive abilities, and share their experiences in overcoming adversity while demonstrating messages of healing, recovery, and hope while receiving affirmation.

5. Build capacity and form alliances with grassroots community leaders, clinical experts, individual volunteers, and organizational stakeholders, including those with psychosocial disabilities, to advance network collaborations across sectors and encourage internal and external teamwork. Leverage assets and resources for addressing workplace retaliation, harassment, discrimination, and bullying concerns. Include the health community and judicial, police, military, financial, academia, diplomatic, pastoral, and other potential partners to support a healthy environment.

6. Assure access to quality medical and dental care and research-based assessments, diagnostics, and treatments that employees and their families understand so that they can make informed choices about their care. Address barriers related to cost, travel capability and distance, availability of trained providers, social stigma, and program effectiveness in your community for independent employee assistance. Ensure that there is an around-the-clock means of help-offering support through drop-in centers, online, or call center capabilities for anyone struggling with life’s challenges and inform your workforce on availability. Promote 800-273-8255 as the national lifeline.

7. Commit to continuous process improvement protocols that encourage identifying problem areas, root causes, cost benefits, disclosures of wrongdoing, ethical conflicts, and prioritize the avoidance of harm above all other organizational interests. Ensure that employees who make a disclosure receive the full protections afforded them under the law and provide comprehensive training on whistleblower protections. Include independent entities for fair and unbiased reviews, inquiries or investigations, and mediations. Be as transparent as possible. Report findings and share lessons learned.

8. Track all complaints of retaliation, discrimination, harassment, wrongdoing, and hazards and how those complaints are adjudicated and reconciled in a non-hostile, non-adversarial manner. Recognize and reward employees who make disclosures. Annually review any recommendations and implementations of corrective actions for effectiveness and adjust processes accordingly. Assess workplace climate and solicit employee feedback. Engage employees in problem-solving. Take timely and fair disciplinary actions.

9. Offer resilient employee engagement opportunities that holistically address people’s circumstances and incorporates perspectives in managing organizational change, talent succession, mission sustainability, and performance improvement planning for all employees equally. Align strategic objectives to employee plans to enhance an individual’s sense of self-worth and empowerment for their productivity and livelihood abilities to be nurtured or restored to be a contributing member of society.

10. Develop, allocate, or advocate for community resources dedicated to advancing prevention, resilience, and mental health research and programs. Seek policies and solutions that are creative, innovative, and flexible in their application. Provide direct resources to vulnerable employees, families, or beneficiaries/customers impacted by stress and disorder, such as children with disabilities, survivors of interpersonal violence or mass casualty, military veterans, elderly, and those who are living most impoverished or disenfranchised. Be a good neighbor.